Poster Boy
by Alenax10Ezra
Summary: Ezra Falcon was a simple smuggler until the Republic won her over with a promise of freedom. As things never go as planned, Ezra finds herself under constant attack from the Sith and accompanied by the Republic's shining poster boy and an annoyingly self-righteous Jedi. Follow Ezra's journey to defeat the Sith and find herself. A KOTOR Carth Onasi love story. Please read and review
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Ezra was pissed. When the Alliance approached her with this job offer they made it sound like a cushy protection gig with a steady paycheck (something she'd never had before). Seeing as business had been slow lately and they had promised to wipe her record should she agree to the mission, she signed on. She did not sign up, however, for a full-blown attack by Jedi in the middle of the damn night. She let out a frustrated growl as she dug her curved daggers into the back of the last Sith soldier between herself and the escape pods.

"Please tell me that's the last of these bastards," she begged into her personal communicator.

The voice that had been her constant companion during the attack responded immediately, "It should be. Let me unlock the door and then we can get off this ship before they blow it to bits." The door in front of her slid open with a groan and she finally got a look at the man who guided her through the ship. She had to admit, he was pretty cute for an officer. Unfortunately, their current situation didn't leave her much chance to comment. The man stepped away from the console and moved to the escape pod. "Well? Let's go already!"

* * *

 _They were coming for her, she could feel it. Just a few more minutes and she could finally face the fools who had come to kill her. She would make them regret every step they took on her ship, the arrogant bastards. Suddenly, the ship lurched to the side. Were they hit? The Jedi wouldn't have brought a fleet, this was meant to be a stealth attack… Could it be? Had the lovesick puppy finally gained the ambition to take her out? Hell of a way to do it. Coward. Her thoughts were cut short as she heard the door to her command room unlatch and she opened her eyes to stare down the intruders. They wasted no time and she was immediately thrown backwards into one of the consoles._

With a jolt, Ezra sat up in her bed. Wildly she lunged for her daggers at the end of her bed and prepared for an attack.

"Woah there, you're safe, calm down," a vaguely familiar voice called out from some distance. As the blackness faded from her vision she assessed her surroundings. She appeared to be in a one room apartment with no windows as clues to her location. Her searching eyes landed on a man standing on the other side of the room attempting to hide the fact that his hand was hovering over his gun.

"Safe, huh? And why would I trust you?" She couldn't help her suspicion. He was unfamiliar, alone in a room with her, and armed. She didn't lower her daggers or sit down despite the fog and dizziness threatening to obscure her thoughts and vision.

"I'm Carth, Carth Onasi," when the suspicious expression failed to leave her face he lifted his hands in front of him to show he wasn't a threat and tried again. "I was on the Endar Spire, I guided you through the ship. Do you remember?"

The fog was fading from her mind but it was being replaced with a pounding headache. Fortunately, she did remember him now. "Yeah… I remember now. I'm Ezra, by the way." Ezra lowered her daggers and set them on the table, opting to sink down onto the bed and hold her head in her hands. "My head is killing me… what happened?"

"We had a bit of a rocky landing. I was mostly unharmed but you were knocked unconscious. I managed to get us to this apartment before the Sith showed up. Lucky too, you've been out for a few days now. I did my best to dress your wounds but it might be a good idea to find a real doctor."

Carth adverted his eyes from her when he mentioned dressing her wounds and Ezra wondered why until she looked down at herself. She was stripped down to her underwear with the only thing protecting her modesty at all being an oversized t-shirt. To Carth's credit, she was heavily bandaged and the skin that was showing was badly bruised. He must have done what he thought was best.

"Well, I should get going then. I guess I owe you my life, thanks," Ezra stood slowly, fighting the nausea, and made her way towards her clothing neatly folded on a table.

"Even if you were healthy enough to go off on your own, you can't believe I would just leave you to fend for yourself," Carth said moving to support Ezra as she swayed. She flinched away from his extended hand but he continued, "the Sith are scouring the planet looking for any Republic survivors. The smart thing to do would be to stay together."

"Look, I get that you're a Republic lapdog but I didn't sign up for this. I'm getting the first transport off this planet and going back to my crew."

"Your crew? What exactly did you do before joining?"

"Like I said, I didn't 'join'. I'm a smuggler, if you must know, and the Republic offered me a clean slate if I helped them out on this protection job. But my contract did not cover getting shot down by damn Jedi and being stranded with the Republic poster boy. Thanks, but no thanks."

Ezra put as much disgust into her words as possible. There was no way she was risking her neck any further for a few thousand credits and a (probably) false promise of freedom. She pulled on her pants as quickly as she could and decided to finish getting dressed in the closest cantina restroom. Turning around to leave she found her path blocked by the lapdog.

"Alright I tried to be nice about this but you're being a real pain in the ass. I need your help and I'm not taking no for an answer. We need to find Bastila and get her off this planet and you will help!" Carth snapped, standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.

"And the truth comes out! I knew you had an ulterior motive for wanting me to stick around. You Republic types always have your own selfish agenda hiding behind your pretty words. Just let me… let me…" The last thing Ezra heard was Carth's yell of surprise as she hit the ground.

* * *

When she woke up in the crappy apartment for the second time she felt much better but her mood had not improved in the slightest. She sat up and celebrated to herself when she didn't immediately feel like retching. Though if she did have to retch she definitely would have aimed for Mr. Republic's fancy boots. Speaking of, Carth didn't seem to be anywhere in the room. Taking her chance, she slipped out of bed, quickly pulled on her clothes, strapped her daggers to her hips and was just finishing tying her left boot when the door slid open.

"Druk…" Ezra muttered under her breath. "Oh hey Onasi! I was just about to come looking for you!"

"You're not fooling anyone. I'm glad you're feeling better. I picked up some information you might find interesting by the way."

"Oh?"

"There's a travel ban. No ships can leave Taris by order of the Sith. Guess you're stuck with the "poster boy", huh?" To his credit, Carth managed a slight smile (though it looked more like a grimace) to accompany his reference.

"Unless you have a ship hidden somewhere under that uniform," Ezra let her eyes drift over Carth's body, "…unlikely, then I think my chances are just as good, if not better, without you."

Carth rolled his eyes, refusing to rise to her bait, and responded, "Bastila's a Jedi. If anyone can find a way of this planet it would be her."

"A Jedi huh..?" Ezra's thoughts went back to the dream she had immediately after the crash. It was so vivid and she distinctly remembered there being Jedi involved. Maybe this Bastila lady would know something about it all. It was worth a shot, Ezra thought to herself. "Fine. I'll help you. But in exchange, we have to do this my way."

Carth looked incredulous that the Jedi comment was what convinced her but he must have realized he wasn't in a position to be picky. "Fine. We'll try it your way first but if you're not serious about this I will take over."

Ezra's face lit up at the prospect of forcing this Republic lapdog to follow her around in all her questionably legal antics. In a good mood for the first time since being rudely awoken on the Endar Spire, Ezra finished putting on her boots and tied her hair back into a convenient ponytail. "Let's go then, Poster Boy!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The pair hardly made it out the door to the apartment before Ezra found trouble. Growing up on the outer rim as she did, she didn't experience very much racism and when she did she was always well within her rights to shoot the racist in the face. Her close friends had often come from alien races and she did not tolerate any form of bigotry. So, when she and Carth stumbled upon two Duros attempting to stand up to a Sith patrol in their apartment complex, Ezra didn't think twice about getting involved.

She felt Carth's hand pull her arm when she drew her daggers and took a step forward and she heard his words, "We need to lay low, don't start anything," she just didn't care much for his opinion at the moment (or any moment really) and when the Sith opened fire on one of the unarmed Duros, there was no power in the verse that could have stopped her from sinking her daggers deep into the back of the closest trooper. She heard Carth sigh before pulling out his blaster and making short work of the second trooper who was attempting to land a shot on Ezra. With a rage filled battle cry Ezra tackled the officer, the man who ordered the Duros shot, and held one of her blades to his neck.

"You Sith are all about fear and power, right? Well how does it feel to be powerless and afraid? Huh?! How does it feel?!" With another painful scream, she slit the man's throat. When she sat back in a crouched position she caught Carth's concerned expression before he turned and began speaking with the remaining Duros. Ezra took a deep breath and felt her rage subside as she strapped her blades back into place. This wasn't the first time she'd felt such incredible rage by a long shot but it always left her with a dark pit in her stomach that she couldn't fill. She shook her head and decided to focus on more practical matters, like stripping the corpses of anything valuable.

By the time Carth finished speaking with the survivor and made his way back to her, she had found 150 credits, a nice-looking blaster and an eye mask that assisted a shooter's aim by making rapid calculations and estimations automatically. She stood up from her crouched position over the last of the Sith and handed Carth the mask with a smirk. "Here ya go Poster Boy, it's useless to me but maybe it will help make sure you don't 'accidentally' shoot me in the heat of battle."

Carth rolled his eyes but accepted the mask nevertheless. "I haven't yet… Wait, Ezra! You didn't even clean of the blood!" She laughed as Carth viciously wiped the mask on his pants, his face twisted in disgust the entire time. When he finally decided it was clean enough for his tastes, he put the mask on and turned to Ezra, "How do I look?"

"Much better, most of your ugly mug is hidden now," she responded with a joking smile and a small laugh. When Carth laughed with her she began to think that maybe being stuck with Mr. Republic wouldn't be such a bad thing after all. Then of course he had to ruin it.

"So, do you wanna talk about what happened just now? You went a little crazy…"

The smile fell from her face and she quickly turned on her heel. "It wasn't anything. Let's get moving." Carth fell silent after that. 

* * *

A few hours later, Ezra was finally in her element. After asking around a bit confirmed her belief that cantinas are the best places to gather information, she managed to convince her companion to let her spend a few hours there alone. It wasn't easy, Carth obviously didn't trust her out of his sight, but as Ezra pointed out, he was far too stiff to blend in at a bar. They compromised by agreeing to check in with each other every hour and he offered to ask around at the shops.

As soon as she stepped foot inside the cantina she tugged her hair out of its pony tail and let it fall around her shoulders. Maybe it was a little tangled and greasy but in this low light no one would be able to tell anyway. Her first stop was the bartender. She worked best when she was a little tipsy anyway. After a few drinks she was starting to feel better about the situation she was stuck in with Poster Boy. All she had to do was find this stupid Jedi, get the information she wanted from her, and then as soon as Taris was behind them she could part ways with both of the Republic soldiers.

Deciding it was time to get to work, Ezra tugged her shirt down to display a little more cleavage and made sure her short leather jacket would remain open. No better way to get information then from drooling, braindead sleaze balls too distracted by boobs to realize anything strange about the topic of conversation. She grabbed her half empty Tarisian Ale and sauntered her way over to a group of rowdy men. Leaning over the table they were sitting at, she easily had them hooked and while they were more than eager to tell her anything to keep her at the table, they knew hardly anything about any republic escape pods. As she walked away from them, a short beep in her ear let her know Carth was calling.

She stepped out of the cantina and rested against the safety bar along the side of the platform (away from the Sith guard's ears). "What's up, Poster Boy?"

Carth's voice came through a little crackly, "Hey. Find anything out?"

"Nothing yet. No one up here seems to know anything about the escape pods."

"Well lucky for you I ran into a Republic-friendly doctor. He says the space pods landed in the Under City but we'll need papers or something to get past the guard at the elevator."

"Hm… would a uniform work?"

"Maybe? Where would we get uniforms anyway?"

"Leave that to me. Meet me at the cantina when you can. This won't take long." While they were talking, Ezra was forming a plan in her head. She remembered seeing an off duty Sith soldier being ignored by all the patrons in the cantina. All she had to do was show him a little attention and he would be putty in her hand. Get him to take her home and she'd have access to his uniform. She quickly downed the rest of her ale and made her way back into the cantina, comfortably buzzed. She'd need that buzz to get through this conversation.

She milled around a bit around the cantina, sending not so subtle looks towards her target. She needed him to think she was interested in him which meant she had to be a little less direct. She bought herself another ale and when it was almost finished she finally slipped through the crowds towards him.

Ezra had done this so many times before that flirting had become a dance she knew all the steps to. "Hey, do you know any good drinks? I've had a few of these ales but I was hoping to have some new experiences tonight," she said with a coy smile.

"Hey I'm just glad you're willing to talk to me. No one here wants to be seen with an off duty Sith. Want me to go buy you a drink?" he asked smiling. He was surprisingly not staring at her tits which, she realized, was rather refreshing. Maybe she'd been spending too much time around drunken patrons and too little around civilized men. Not that a Sith was civilized, mind you. Damn, her standards have fallen. Or she was drunker than she thought.

Either way, she genuinely smiled up at the Sith (he was a good couple of inches taller than her), "Sure, that sounds great! I can't imagine anyone not wanting to speak with you." She followed him to the bar and gratefully accepted the bright blue drink from him. In hindsight, she probably should have avoided alcohol that actually tasted good. As she and the Sith (whose name was Tyris) continued their conversation, she drank at least three more of those pretty blue drinks and was feeling very good. Fortunately, he was just as drunk so their jumbled conversation was still interesting to both of them.

"Hey Tyrissss, I need to go pee. I'll be riiiiiiight back, kay?" Ezra asked, comfortably leaning against the Sith.

"Okay, can you get there?" he asked, concerned for her even through the alcohol. She had to remind herself that there was a goal for tonight and that she couldn't actually like this man. With a curt nod that made her a little dizzy, she wandered in the general direction of where she remembered the bathroom to be. Instead of finding the bathroom however, she found a certain unamused Republic soldier.

"Oh! Hey Ona… Onas… Carth!" she supported herself by grabbing his bicep with one hand and pushing against his chest with the other. "Oooh… do you work out?"

His glare didn't budge. "Just how drunk are you?"

"Not at all! Whatever would make you… *hic* …think I'm drank?"

"'Drank.' Yeah. Come on. We're leaving now."

"No!" Ezra exclaimed, pushing against Carth's chest. She pushed harder than she thought, however, and started to fall backwards. Luckily, Carth saved her by wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back up against him. Despite herself, a bright blush spread across her face. "Carth…"

"Really. It's time to go, Ezra."

Still pressed against Carth, she found her brain especially did not want to function, so she wiggled out of his grasp and took a breath to clear her mind. "I've almost got him. Really! Just let him take me home, follow us, and then when he passes out we can take his uniform!"

"And what if you pass out also?"

"I won't! Trust me!" Ezra smiled up at him, and somewhere her brain registered that Carth was taller than Tyris by a few inches, making him almost a half foot taller than her. She couldn't lie, she definitely liked that. And his muscles. And maybe even his face…

Carth sighed in defeat. "Fine, but please be careful. Going home with a Sith when you're drunk off your ass is not a safe situation."

Ezra rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah… That's what you're here for!" Before she actually processed the action, she went on her tiptoes and kissed Carth on the cheek. Her brain finally realized what she did when she was off her toes and she and Carth stared at each other in disbelief. "Uhm. So. Bye," Ezra managed to stutter out before turning around and returning to Tyris.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

For the second time in the last couple of days, Ezra woke up with a pounding headache. Looking around, she realized that somehow, she managed to make it back to the apartment she shared with Carth last night, though for the life of her, she couldn't remember anything after… kissing Mr. Republic. How she had found him attractive was beyond her. Yeah, he's cute for a soldier but he's far too prim and proper for her tastes …usually.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the door sliding open and revealing the one person she really did not want to see. "Hey, you're finally awake," he said without a trace of the awkwardness she was feeling. Maybe he thought she didn't remember? …Or maybe he just didn't care. "Feeling up to a trip to the Under City?"

"The Under City? We got the uniform?" Ezra asked, fighting to remember anything from last night through the haze.

"Yeah. You're a sloppy drunk but you got the job done. Of course, I had to carry you back here after your Sith friend passed out."

"Oh… Thank's then. I owe you one."

"No, you owe me a few. But anyway, get dressed. We need to get going. The uniform will get me past the guard but we still need to find a way to get you through."

Ezra watched Carth as he made his way over to the wardrobe and took out her clothes. He tossed them onto her lap and before she really thought it through, she opened her mouth and said, "Hey Carth? Tell me about yourself."

"What?" Carth looked over at Ezra in surprise, due to what she asked or her use of his actual name, she couldn't tell.

"You heard me. I get the feeling we're going to be spending quite a bit of time together and I figured maybe we should get to know each other a bit." Ezra was embarrassed that she even brought this up but she wasn't one to back down, even for silly things like this.

"Hm… okay. I see your point. You first though," Carth responded after thinking for a second.

Ezra reluctantly nodded. "Okay, Post-I mean Carth, what do you want to know?"

He chuckled a little at her obvious attempt to be civil. "Let's start with where you're from."

"Okay. I was born and raised on Ossus, on the outer rim. My parents died when I was fourteen years old and that's when I took up smuggling. I was small, so I could fit into small places and steal things for my boss at the time."

"Fourteen, huh? That's pretty young."

"Yeah, maybe. All it means to me is that I've had plenty of time to perfect my skills," Ezra said with an easy smile on her face. To be honest, her past is usually so far from her mind that when she does think of it, it hardly even seems real, let alone something to feel bad about. "Anyway, it's your turn!"

Carth's expression turned stony, "Alright, I'm from Telos. Had a family there and everything." He took a deep breath and avoided Ezra's eyes. "Lately though, my home's been wherever the fleet takes me. I fought in the Mandalorian Wars so I'm pretty decorated as a soldier. Just means I get the harder jobs."

Ezra knew she shouldn't push, but something in Carth's expression (or lack thereof) convinced her that he needed to talk about this. So, she pried a bit. "You said you "had" a family… what happened?" She asked as softly as she could but she still saw every muscle in his body tense.

"Could we… could we not talk about this right now? I'm sorry, I know you probably mean well but…"

"It's alright, Carth. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

"It's not that, I'm just not used to talking about my past. At all really… Let's just get back to finding Bastila."

"Fair enough," Ezra said, standing up from the bed a little too fast, making her steady herself against the wall. Concern flashed across Carth's face before changing to humor.

"Nasty hangover, beautiful?" he asked with an irritating smirk.

"Fuck off, Poster Boy." Ezra pushed off of the wall and held her pounding head as she searched her bag for some anti-veisalgias before she remembered that she lost all of her belongings in the crash. "We're going 'shopping.'"

Ezra pulled on her clothes as quickly as she could with her debilitating headache and dragged a suspicious Carth out of the apartment. When Ezra stopped and crouched down in front of their neighbor's door, Carth could hold back his questions no longer. "What the hell are you doing?"

Ezra didn't acknowledge his question until the door slid open. Then she looked up at him from her position on the ground and smiled deviously, "'Shopping,' duh."

Carth began protesting as Ezra slipped inside the room. "No! Ezra! Get back here! I am not going to be an accomplice to your petty crimes!"

"Calm down and get in here. You look crazy suspicious," she responded calmly as she rummaged through the footlocker inside the room. Carth looked like he wanted to argue but must have decided it would be better not to get caught as he quickly moved inside the room and shut the door behind him. "Oh! Look at this! Fifty credits! And lookie here, we must have an alcoholic as a neighbor," Ezra said happily as she held up a pack of anti-veisalgia drugs.

"You're calling them an alcoholic but you carried the same medication… Wait, that's not the important thing here. You can't just steal from these people!"

"Sure I can. I'm doing it right now."

"That's not..! You can't…! It's not…!" Carth let out a sigh and hung his head a little. "There's no way I'm changing your mind, is there?"

"Nope! You tried though, it's the thought that counts," Ezra said, still grinning ear to ear. She threw her findings into her bag and pushed past Carth, leaving the apartment as if she owned it. Carth followed but immediately sighed again when Ezra started working on the next door's lock. Ezra's nimble fingers had the door open in a couple of seconds and slipped into the room. Without bothering to make sure Carth followed her, she quickly stripped the room of its valuables and left as silently as she came.

Unfortunately, her luck ran out with the third door. It opened as easily as the last two but this one wasn't unoccupied. When Ezra took a step into the room she came face-to-barrel with a blaster. She froze immediately and heard Carth utter a swear from behind her.

"What the doshin' hell do you think you're doing, you kriffin' harpy!" the man behind the gun yells.

"Pfassk! Is this not my apartment? Must have taken a wrong turn. I'll just be going now…" Ezra tried to back out of the apartment but was stopped by the man's finger tightening on the trigger.

"Nice try, harpy," he said gruffly. "You were tryin' to rob me, weren't ya?"

"Look, I'm sorry for my companion, sir. We just took a wrong turn," Carth tried to explain.

"This is your harpy?" the man asked, turning his attention to Carth. Ezra took that chance to duck under his gun and behind his back, bringing her dagger up to his neck.

"I'd really appreciate it if you would stop calling me a harpy, you Gamorian pig. Drop the blaster," Ezra said icily, her expression dangerously blank.

"I'd do as she says, buddy," Carth said trying to avoid Ezra slitting the man's throat.

"Like hell..!" The man tried to elbow Ezra but she saw it coming and pulled her dagger across his neck before he had the chance. She dropped him and looked up at Carth.

"I had no choice…" she said quietly. Carth didn't look at her so she knelt down and searched the man's body looking for valuables. After a few minutes, she stood up with a stealth belt in her hand. "Well, at least I found my way past the Sith guard."

* * *

"Sit down," Carth commanded as soon as the two of them were safely back inside their own apartment.

"Ooh, I love a man who takes control." Carth ignored Ezra's poor attempt at a joke and sat down himself.

"What is that? Why do you lose control of yourself like that in combat? I fought in the Mandalorian Wars. I've seen my fair share of combat but I have never seen anyone shut down like that."

"I… I honestly don't know." Ezra let out a deep breath. There was no avoiding this conversation anymore. "Ever since I was posted on the Endar Spire I've been having these moments of black-out rage. It's like, something dark inside of me rises up and takes control and I have no means of resisting it. And then, when I come back to my senses, there's always this hollow pit inside of me that feels like it's sucking in everything good about me."

After a pause to think, Carth said, "How about this. Why don't you tell me what happened on the Endar Spire, from your point of view."

"Why? You were in contact with me the whole time. You know as much as I do."

"I'm just trying to piece it together. Some things don't add up. I mean, so many good men and women lost their lives, and for what? Bastila's supposed to be this strong Jedi but she didn't have a chance to do anything. None of us did, really. It's just surprising that any of us are around to talk about it. And especially strange is the fact that you're here. That you made it. A smuggler who was added to the crew last minute."

"…You're not implying that I had something to do with the attack, are you?"

"No. Well, maybe. Look it's just strange that someone Bastila's party specifically requested just happened to survive."

"Bastila requested my transfer? Why?"

"I'm not sure. The Jedi requested numerous things when they came onboard, practically took over the ship. I'm not saying you did anything, it's just suspicious, and I'm probably wrong. But I learned a long time ago not to take anything at face value. I hate surprises."

"I'll remember that during your birthday," Ezra tried to joke again. Not getting any reaction from the serious soldier however, she tried a different tactic. "I'm telling you, I had nothing to do with the crash, Carth. You have to believe me."

"You're probably telling the truth but I don't have to believe you. It's better to be safe than sorry. Especially with this… dark impulse you have."

"Okay that's enough," Ezra snapped, startling Carth. "You've had your turn with the questions. Now you're going to tell me where these trust issues of yours come from."

"…Fine. My homework, Telos, was one of the first planets that Malak's fleet attacked. The Sith bombed it into submission and there wasn't a damn thing our republic forces could do to stop them!"  
"Pfassk… I'm sorry, Carth, this must be hard to talk about."

"I'm just a soldier; I go where the fleet admirals tell me to. I follow my orders and I do my duty. I guess I am a Republic poster boy. It just…" he paused to sigh and put his head in his hands. "…doesn't seem right that doing that means I failed them!" He lifted his head to look at Ezra, anger burning in his eyes, "I didn't!"

"Them? The people of Telos?"

"No. Well, yes. I'm sorry, I'm not making much sense, am I?" Carth looked defeated, the anger was fading.

"Not really," Ezra gave Carth a small smile and a small laugh.

He responded with a small smile of his own and said, "Well, we should turn in for tonight. Big day tomorrow. Try to get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay, good night." Calling him Poster boy seemed too mean after that talk.


End file.
